Captivated Me

Words are hard to find this tender week. And as I lay in bed tonight, I cannot help but think about the women, men, children, families in Ukraine at this moment as they live – maybe barely survive – another day, hunkered in bunkers in an attempt to escape lethal intent. The prayers they are praying, I wish I could partner with and echo. What they must feel, what they are facing, I cannot begin to fathom.

Home is the one place you should never have to flee from. The one place in the whole world you should be able to feel safe, at ease, at peace, sheltered from any storm. A sacred ground where family gathers, memories are made, food and music and laughter are shared, and neighbors and strangers become friends. How anyone can justify threatening and destroying these spaces – bombarding and claiming a whole country, inciting fear, displacing families, massacring communities – cannot be grasped.

Abba, Father,
This week’s events, we know, You see.
We beseech you, God,
That Your perfect peace would bring calm to chaos,
That Your might and comfort would surround the mourning, the hurting, the suffering;
Counteracting how their cities are surrounded by unjust armies and tanks and explosions.
We pray that fear would be abolished,
That evil would be extinguished.
Our hearts cry out
For deliverance for the oppressed.
For rest for the weary.
For strength for those who rise up in the face of darkness,
Fighting for light.
We pray for our world’s leaders,
That they would have Your wisdom to navigate wisely
This brutal war.

And during these painful days,
As senseless brutality invades,
May we be extra intentional –
Wherever on earth we are –
To be the sunshine, to be the peace
To our neighbors,
To our loved ones,
To strangers,
To anyone in our path.
May we be extra willful
To send our support and our prayers –
In whatever form possible –
To those affected,
Near and far.
May this become,
In ever-increasing measure,
Our normal rhythm and practice
As we journey through this world,
This life.

Peace, God. Bring it all to peace.